Total Distance for today: 0 miles
Total Distance for Tour: approx. 377 miles
LOCATION: Richmond, VA
STATUS: Preparing for some talks at high schools in Richmond and calling ahead to Raleigh, NC

We’re finally getting ready to move on to Raleigh, unfortunately, all of the business with the Detroit Project prevented me from getting the ball rolling early enough on schools in the Richmond area. A couple opportunities popped up, but I was not able to close on them. That’s ok; sometimes things don’t work out the way we expect. In these situations, all we can do is learn from the situation and move on.

Mindset Supersedes Ideas

One great thing about hanging out with creative and big-minded people is that you happen upon a lot of great ideas. More importantly, the mindset that produces great ideas begins to rub off on you when you spend your time with creators of cool ideas.

What I’ve discovered is that a great idea can take you completely captive. In the moment of genius, and for the period after, nothing else seems to matter. Everything pales in comparison to the shiny new idea. But as time goes on, you either implement and test out your idea or you don’t. You may find that it was good or that it was bad. You’re more likely to find that like most ideas, it could be good or even great, with some work.

Before too long some other idea will capture and captivate your imagination, and once again, all of the surrounding world will dim in comparison. If this happens enough, you will begin to realize two important things:

1) Implementation beats out big talk about big ideas any day. It is in the messiness of implementation that we see if our ideas float or not. It is here that we refine them and make them float.

2) The mindset that produces great ideas is far more valuable than any specific idea that comes from it. Within the creative, unrestrained, and free mind, lie endless mysteries, treasures, and gifts. The key is to free the mind to create and let its ideas out into the world.